Monday, November 16, 2015

Yep, that´s right! We´re teaching English classes!! They start this Saturday
and we are so excited!! With two Americans, we decided it´s the perfect
opportunity to start some classes at the chapel, and wow, the response
has been incredible! I think the whole ward wants to come, and they´re
all bringing friends and neighbors. Everyone here wants to learn English
:) Sister Bundy and I are a little nervous, but we are pretty ecstatic
to have this amazing finding opportunity!

So anyways, this week was crazy (I say that every week, I know). Tuesday,
we went to the escritorio for transfers. It was way fun to meet a bunch
of new missionaries, and I found myself being able to hold a
conversation with a lot of them, so that was really exciting for me!
Sister Nunes was tranferred, which was really sad, but we know that she
is doing great things in her new area.

Wednesday,
we had a meeting with our whole zone, which was really fun, because
about 1/3 of our zone is brand new out of the CTM! They´re all really
great Elders and we´re excited to be with them. Wednesday was probably the hottest day I´ve ever experienced in my life haha I don´t think I´ve ever sweat that much.

On Wednesday, I started to feel like I was getting a cold, and by Thursday
I was pretty sick. Since then, I´ve been coughing and sneezing and
sniffling and sweating nonstop. If you´ve never had the privilege of
having a cold in the middle of a Brazilian summer, you´re missing out!
It´s the best! ;) Funny sidenote: Cold is "Gripe" in Portuguese
(pronounced gree-pee, sounds like creepy) which I think is hilarious. So
every time I tell someone I have the gripe, I start laughing and then
coughing and it all goes down hill from there :)

Being
sick has definitely pushed me to (and possibly past) my physical
limits, but we´ve tried to continue working whenever possible. Thanks to
help from Heavenly Father, we were still able to teach a lot this week.
Our District Leader called last night to tell us that our numbers were
really great this week, especially knowing how sick I´ve been. That was a
relief to hear that we´re still doing a good job.

I´m
pretty surprised that this cold hasn´t passed yet, but I´m sure it will
go away this week. It had better, because we´ve got a lot of work to
do! We had 5 investigators at church this week, which is awesome! We
have some golden people, and I love them all so much. If addictions
didn´t exist, they´d all be members by now :) Luckily, God takes all
kinds of people, exactly as they are, and with the help of the
Atonement, all people have the ability to be cleansed from their sins
and saved in the kingdom of God. I know for a fact that God loves and
supports each and every one of His children, especially when they are
making the effort to overcome their addictions and trials.

Being
with Sister Bundy has been a joy as always :) She´s really nice, and we
enjoy reminiscing about the United States and traditions/foods/anything
that we miss. We´ve been listening to a lot of Christmas music, which
keeps our spirits up :)

Anyways, I hope you are
all doing well! The Gospel is amazing, isn´t it? Even when we feel like
we can´t go any further, if we rely on God, He can lift our burdens and
help us go farther than we ever thought we could. I have felt that this
week for sure. I know you can feel it too :) Just pray! And He´s right
there in an instant!

Wow, this week was crazy! I don´t
even know where to begin! We had a really successful week and were able
to teach a ton of lessons, so that was great :) I´m totally exhausted
most of the time, but it´s worth it :)

We had a crazy experience Monday night when we came home! It was about 9pm,
and I was in the bedroom and I heard Sister Bundy start screaming from
the bathroom, so I came to the door to see if she was okay, and out from
under the door runs some little creature! I thought it was a cockroach,
but it was bigger and white! It ran right towards me and into our
bedroom and behind the door! I jumped up on my bed, and peeked around the
door. It was a lizard!! Sister Bundy and I stayed up on our beds, and
called for Sister Nunes. She got a broom and tried to coax the lizard
out from behind the door. I suggested we make a barrier so that it
wouldn´t go under my bed (my bed is closest to the door) but Sister
Nunes promised it wouldn´t run that way. Sure enough, it ran straight
under my bed. We pulled the bed out but the lizard was nowhere to be
found! We spent the next 40 minutes looking for it, occasionally
screaming and jumping up on our beds whenever we saw something move.
Finally, I saw it run behind the door again. This time, I wasn´t taking
any chances, and I used all my shoes as a barrier around the door so
that it couldn´t run anywhere. Sister Nunes used the broom again, but
this time, the lizard ran under one of the shoes! So Sister Nunes,
bless her courageous heart, started batting the shoe with the broom! The
lizard´s tail flew off and started flopping around on it´s own as
Sister Nunes continued to hit the lizard with the broom. Meanwhile,
Sister Bundy and I was jumping on the beds screaming at the top of our
lungs (this is a normal occurrence now). The best part is, Sister Bundy
got it all on video! Finally, after chaos for an hour and a half, the
lizard was dead....it´s tail kept flopping around for a good twenty
minutes!!!! Crazy! Needless to say, none of us slept very well that
night. :)

I had another crazy experience
involving a homeless man who I accidentally agreed to marry (my
Portuguese still needs some work), but I´ll save that for another time
:)

The work continues to move forward here :)
We have some amazing investigators. My favorite to teach is probably
Sid. He´s like a grandpa to all of us and he´s got such a sweet spirit.
Once we work through some issues, I know he´s gonna be one of the most
valiant priesthood holders there ever was :) I love him. The people here
have so much faith and they are so willing to sincerely seek what is
right. I´m privileged to be among such amazing sons and daughters of
Father.

Thank you all for your continued support and love and prayers! Yáll are awesome :)

All my love,

Sister Doyle

P.S.
Sister Nunes is being transferred tomorrow! :( So it´ll just be me and
Sister Bundy. I´m gonna miss that girl! I don´t know what we´re going to
do without her spunk and courage :)

Happy Halloween...psych! They don´t really celebrate it here like we do. Bummer.

This week was different, but good. We stayed at home for two days (Thursday and Friday)
because Sister Nunes had a molar pulled and was in a lot of pain...so
we spent a lot of time talking and writing and cleaning, etc. Siste
Bundy did my nails, which was a first for me. Not sure if I like the
feeling of nail polish, but they´re very pretty :)

We
have two investigators who are really progressing right now: Sid (older
man who I contacted, tons of faith, awesome guy, adorable
grand-daughters) and Mar (a referral from Sidney, young guy, owns a
pizza/icecream shop, lady´s man, super interested in the Gospel).

Highlight
of the week: Church yesterday. Sidney came for the first time! And when
we were late to pick him up, he started walking there! In the rain!
Halfway through testimony meeting, he asked if he could go up!! The
Sisters and I said yes of course and held our breath! He got up and said
the sweetest, simplest testimony I´ve ever heard about how he was happy
he was there, glad he met us, and that our message has touched his
heart. I was crying by the end of it. I then got up and bore my
testimony (super nervous to do it in Portuguese!) and thanked the ward
for how amazingly patient they are with me and how grateful I am for
them and for the fact that the Gospel is the same no matter where we are
in the world. The Spirit during that whole meeting was just super
strong.

Another highlight this week: Some
members gave me a little box with American cookies (soft, gooey,
delicious cookies, not crunchy cracker-cookies)!! They bought them at a
special store far away! I almost cried. It felt like the nicest thing
anyone has ever done for me haha and they were the best cookies I think
I´ve ever eaten :)

Scripture of the week: 1
Nephi 21:3-5...even on the hard days, we´re still doing the Lord´s work.
And 1 Nephi 21:12-23...The Brazilian people are the scattered tribes of
Israel! How cool to be able to accomplish some of this great work that
has been prophesied about by prophets clear back to Isaiah!

Random things that I should´ve told y'all about before:

-
They always use a fork in their right hand and a knife in their left
hand (like they don´t set the knife down ever). I´m already totally used
to it, and it´s hard to even imagine eating without a knife in my left
hand...like what do you even do with your hand? Set it in your lap??
Weird.

- When you greet any woman, you kiss
them on cheek. I´m already accustomed to that too. Sorry in advance for
anyone I kiss when I get back.

- They don´t
flush toilet paper here. When you´re done using it, you throw it in the
trash can beside the toilet. It took me a few weeks to feel normal about
that, but it´s a habit now. Again, sorry in advance....

-
The people are super down-to-earth here. Yesterday, we were having
lunch with a married couple, and the man started saying something like,
"When we got married, my wife was skinny and beautiful, and now she is
fat and has ugly hair." And the wife just nodded and agreed. I thought I
must be translating it wrong or something...but I asked Sister Bundy
afterward, and sure enough, that´s exactly what he said!! I was pretty
appalled. But that is just a fact to them. They don´t take offense to
things like that. If you call comeone fat and they are, it´s simply a
fact you´re stating about that...not sure if I´ll ever adjust to that
one haha

Things are hard but good here, and the
Gospel is just as great as ever! I´m loving reading conference talks
and the Book of Mormon and seeing the effect it has on people. God is
good!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Hope you´re all doing well! This week
was different, but good! Lots of rain and we´ve been freezing, which is
definitely different than last week haha

On
Tuesday, we got to go to the Sao Paulo Temple!! Definitely the highlight
of Brazil so far! The Temple is GORGEOUS! Like the prettiest building I
have ever been in. And of course, the things that happen in the Temple
are amazing as well. We got to do an endowment session and initiatories,
and it was all in Portuguese, so it was definitely a different
experience for me :) Still awesome, though.

At the Temple, we got to see
a lot of the missionaries in the mission, so that was neat. I can´t
wait to be able to speak fluently so I can actually get to know people
instead of just sitting there trying to translate. Having people like
Elder Bush around has been such a blessing. Love that Elder :) We get to
go to the Temple twice a year, so I should get to go at least two more
times! I love the Temple and I´m so excited for our recent converts to
be able to experience the blessings of the Temple just like my family
and I have. If you haven´t gone yet, start preparing now, because it´s
amazing.

This week was pretty slow in terms of
lessons, but we taught a few really good lessons, and one of our
investigators, Sid, introduced us to his friend, Mar, and he is golden!
He came to church on Sunday and seemed to like it. I´m really excited to
start teaching him. And maybe the two of them can be baptized together
soon! Having friends in the church is soooo important to retention!

Our
landlord came to us at the beginning of the week and said that there
was a leakage problem with our shower, so he was going to work on it
sometime this week. Imagine our surprise when we returned home on
Tuesday and saw our toilet in the living room. We opened the bathroom
door, and what used to be our shower and toilet was literally just a
HOLE. It has taken them the entire week to redo it and they never found
the problem. It was definitely rough not having a shower or toilet all
week, but I think they are finishing it tonight! Our neighbor was kind
enough to let us use her bathroom every day. We now have a new toilet
and new tiles, but our bathroom smells super weird haha hopefully we can
fix that soon :)

We had a ward activity this
Saturday at a gorgeous park! And we had a couple of non-members and
recent converts there so that was great :) Other than that, life has
been pretty low-key. We got a new Ward Mission Leader, and he´s pretty
excited, so I´m hoping he can help us improve the work happening in this
area :)

Scripture of the week: 1 Nephi
15:13-16! So cool! I love God´s plan for making sure that all of His
children get to hear the Gospel and I am so blessed to able to be
teaching the scattered tribes of Isreal here!

Let
me know if you have any questions! Sorry that I don´t get to respond to
everyone´s emails and that my responses are usually short! I love you
all and I´m grateful for the continued support and prayers! You guys are
in my prayers and I miss you and think of you often.

Monday, November 2, 2015

This week was crazy, as always. The
weather was especially bipolar this week, with days where I thought my
face was going to melt off and days where I was shivering...and my
Portuguese is still awful, but overall, it was a good week!

Highlight
of the week: Julio was confirmed yesterday! The Spirit was so strong
and I was so grateful and excited for him! The Gospel makes such a
difference in people´s lives and I´m so glad to be a part of bringing it
to the people here. The Gospel is seriously awesome. I have been loving
being able to study for an hour or two every day. Such a blessing :)

Funny
story of the week: Sister Nunes was in the shower and Sister Bundy and I
were eating when I saw what looked like a cockroach crawl into the
couch! Sister Bundy and I both hate bugs, so after destroying the couch
trying to find it, we decided to wait for Sister Nunes to come kill it
for us. Sister Nunes came out a few minutes later, not fully dressed
yet, and upon seeing the couch, made fun of us and picked up her shoe to
kill whatever we were scared of. At the same time, our District Leader
called, so Sister Bundy began talking to him as we watched Sister Nunes.
Sister Nunes proceeded to lift up one of the couch cushions, and to our
horror, there were MULTIPLE COCKROACHES!! Sister Nunes instantly went
full-on ninja in her underwear and began whacking the couch and floor to
kill the cockroaches, while Sister Bundy and I jumped up and down
screaming our heads off. Meanwhile, the District Leader was still on the
phone, hearing beating sounds, and us screaming at the top of our
lungs. Long story short, Sister Nunes is a warrior, our District Leader
was very concerned but laughed when we explained, and there is at least
one more cockroach still alive. I haven´t sat on the couch for days.

Other random toughts to share:

- I found sour candy!! And the bread here is amazing.

- We got a couple new investigators this week, so I´m really excited about that!!

-
There are some crazy religions here (example: one church here has the
members buy a special rose, hang it in their house, and if it wilts,
they know that there is a demon living in their house, so they need to
pay more to have it removed...uhuh.)

- There´s also some weird voodoo stuff...like where they kill animals and leave them in random places...creepy...

- We are going to the Temple tomorrow!! I´m so excited!!!

-
People here are very blunt...they are super honest about how you look,
what you say, etc. examples: "I have a friend who is very fat and
ugly." "That skirt makes your butt look good." "You are being very
stupid right now." Stuff like that. It´s taken some adjusting, and I
don´t know if I will ever be that way, but the plus side is that you
never have to wonder what someone thinks of you!

- I like the music here :)

-My companions are really nice, and they really do try to be obedient and good missionaries :) I´m lucky to be with them.

If
I missed any questions, let me know! I love you all and I love this
Gospel. Being a missionary is no piece of cake, but I know it will be
worth it. Thank you for your continued prayers and support. They are
greatly appreciated. I love this Gospel and the opportunity I have to
share it. You can share it too! It´s not as scary as you think it is, I
promise :)